Mac sales in the enterprise during Apple's last fiscal quarter grew a whopping 66 percent, significantly outpacing the rest of the PC market, which grew just 4.5 percent in the enterprise.

The data from Apple's previous fiscal quarter was highlighted on Friday by analyst Charlie Wolf with Needham & Company. He said though he originally viewed success in the enterprise as a "one-quarter blip," it now appears to be a "durable platform" for Apple.

"Mac shipments in the business market grew at a torrid 66.0% pace, an order of magnitude higher than the 4.5% shipment growth rate of the business market," Wolf wrote.

The trend is particularly interesting because between 2007 and 2009, Mac sales in the enterprise stagnated even as the platform was taking off with consumers. The trend has only reversed over the past four quarters.

Mac sales are now estimated to be 3 percent of total PC business sales, which is the highest total Apple has seen since the second quarter of 1997.

Broken down my market segment, Mac shipments grew 94.7 percent in the "very large business" category, 75.5 percent with "large businesses," 58.1 percent with "medium businesses," and 90.4 percent with "small businesses." All of those totals well exceeded growth in the overall PC market.

Apple's newfound success in the enterprise helped the company outpace its already tremendous growth in the consumer market. Last quarter, Mac shipments in the worldwide home market grew 21.6 percent, while the overall PC market dropped 4.4 percent.

Apple also saw a whopping 155.6 percent growth in Mac sales to governments, compared with just 2.3 percent for PCs. And while education sales grew just 1 percent for Apple, the overall market saw sales slide 6.5 percent last quarter.

"Notwithstanding its premium prices compared with Windows PCs, the Mac should continue to grow faster than the PC market, propelled by the halo effects now emanating from the iPod, iPhone and iPad along with the international rollout of Apple Stores," Wolf said.

In its second fiscal quarter of 2011, Apple reported sales of 3.76 million Macs, a year over year increase of 28 percent and the best-ever total for March quarter. Mac sales helped Apple's profits to grow 95 percent in the three-month frame.

During the company's quarterly earnings conference call, Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook acknowledged the success Apple and the Mac platform have had lately in the enterprise, though he did not delve into specific numbers. He did state he believes that the iPad, which has seen swift adoption among major companies, as created a "halo effect" for the Mac, resulting in even more sales for the platform.

Perhaps corporate America (and the IT Departments) are finally waking up to the reality many of us have known for years: despite higher up-front costs, the long-term cost of ownership of Apple products is significantly less than that of PCs running Windows...

Back in the 90's I worked for one of the major landline companies. I was responsible for deploying (and supporting) 300 PowerMac systems. I had three teammates who collectively supported 100 PCs. Add up the cost of labor and over the three-year lifespan of these systems it's clear that, ultimately, the long-term cost of those PCs (forget the fact that these were very expensive PS/2 machines) was higher.

Here we are 15 years later and PCs are more reliable than they used to be. Still, I purchased my own desktop system three years ago, a $800 Mac Mini. I work on a team of 24 people, all of whom (aside from myself) use HP and Dell laptops. In the past three years, all 23 of them have had their machines out for re-imaging at least once, most of them two or more times, due to corruption. Usually they are without their machines for two days. That's two days of lost productivity. My company does not provide any backup solution for client systems, so having one's system wiped means losing whatever data we do not ourselves back up. It also takes a day or two to get one's system back to being functional.

Multiply 23 people times 5 days of lost productivity, plus the cost of paying the IT support people. Contrast that to a machine that cost $800 and has not had a moment of downtime in three years. Now, which system is cheaper to own?

Does the percentage really mean all that much since there is such a low number of Macs being used in the enterprise? It's good to hear that there's been any growth at all, but the 66% could be some growth like from 15 Macs were being used and now there are 20 Macs being used. I'm not good at math, but maybe unit numbers would be much more useful instead of percentages. Same with Windows PC numbers. If there's 98% Windows PC use in the enterprise, there certainly won't be much growth in terms of percentages.

On a related note, I'm getting my laptop refreshed by our IT dept next week. Sadly it's a ThinkPad X201 rather than the MBA I'd much rather have. All our partners are being issued with iPads though, so not all bad news (and with a distinct possibility that they'll filter down the org -- so many people have them currently anyway).

Does the percentage really mean all that much since there is such a low number of Macs being used in the enterprise? It's good to hear that there's been any growth at all, but the 66% could be some growth like from 15 Macs were being used and now there are 20 Macs being used. I'm not good at math, but maybe unit numbers would be much more useful instead of percentages. Same with Windows PC numbers. If there's 98% Windows PC use in the enterprise, there certainly won't be much growth in terms of percentages.

Exactly. The headline is completely unsupported by the data in the report. There us no evidence presented here to support a statement that Apple has made "huge" or even significant inroads in Enterprise. At most the evidence would support a statement that Apple has seen an increase in Enterprise sales, but without unit volume comparisons ther is not enough data to reach any valid conclusion as to the level of adoption of Macs in enterprise.

I suspect that Apple is going to make an overt effort to invade the enterprise. There are a lot of features in Lion that seem to indicate this, but one feature makes it obvious: the fact that any Mac can be turned into a server with a few configuration changes. The server version contains just about everything that most small to medium businesses need, and the server software includes a license for an unlimited number of clients. Microsoft charges a pretty penny for its server products. They also charge extra for client access licenses above the default number.

Microsoft doesn't make any money from the hardware, so they have to set the price of the software and the client access licenses high enough to make a profit. Apple makes their profit from the hardware, so they don't have to charge much for the software and they can give the client access licenses away for free.

GIven a situation where Lion has everything a business needs, Microsoft can't compete on price.

Exactly. The headline is completely unsupported by the data in the report. There us no evidence presented here to support a statement that Apple has made "huge" or even significant inroads in Enterprise. At most the evidence would support a statement that Apple has seen an increase in Enterprise sales, but without unit volume comparisons ther is not enough data to reach any valid conclusion as to the level of adoption of Macs in enterprise.

I think most people here read this pice of news for what it is. If Apple doubles its enterprise sales that is significant for Apple, and therefore for us.

Journalism 101 - never let the truth stand in the way of a good headline. Having said that I am sure a simple 'Apple gains momentum in Enterprise sales' would get as many hits. Make the headline red and its a different story (I love those red head lines!)

Its would be extremely tough with out a 1U form factor like the recently killed Xserve. Hopefully Apple will bring back a true server system and surprise everyone.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Panu

I suspect that Apple is going to make an overt effort to invade the enterprise. There are a lot of features in Lion that seem to indicate this, but one feature makes it obvious: the fact that any Mac can be turned into a server with a few configuration changes. The server version contains just about everything that most small to medium businesses need, and the server software includes a license for an unlimited number of clients. Microsoft charges a pretty penny for its server products. They also charge extra for client access licenses above the default number.

Microsoft doesn't make any money from the hardware, so they have to set the price of the software and the client access licenses high enough to make a profit. Apple makes their profit from the hardware, so they don't have to charge much for the software and they can give the client access licenses away for free.

GIven a situation where Lion has everything a business needs, Microsoft can't compete on price.

You caught me. My love for all things anti apple has made it so I can't stand Apple's success.

I can sympathize. I bought one of the original Apple ][s, and quickly discovered that it was impossibly expensive to make it practical. I felt the way you do for 25 years.

A couple of spectacular disasters caused by viruses made it evident that I needed a backup computer with a different OS to prevent simultaneous problems. I discovered that my only alternative was Apple. I hated the Mac for about six months, until I discovered that I was doing all my work on the Mac while Windows updated itself. Then within a couple of weeks I had to take the Mac to the Genius Bar, and I had to fix the Dell with an online chat with a guy in India. The difference between the two experiences was eye-opening, and the irony that I was using the Mac to fix the Dell wasn't lost on me.

It was at that point I discovered I was a Mac user. That doesn't mean I hate Microsoft, mind you. It just means that when my father needs help with Windows my anxiety level and my blood pressure goes up.

You should love people and use computers, not use people and love computers. Hating corporations and computers is a waste of good emotion.

Naturally Apple's Macs grew more than PCs. They have less market share.

There is nothing natural about it. Being very sub scale enables you to have crazy growth rates like Android did in the early quarters (5000% etc.) but in a mature market with mature players there is no natural order that Apple (who are a top 5 manufacturer already) should be able to outperform the market. When netbooks were going crazy, Acer outgrow everyone because they were selling what the market wanted. The fact that Apple consistently outgrows the market has little to do with being smaller than the market but that they consistently produce items that people want more than the competitive products.

If you are only referring to the business growth only, your idea is more relevant since Apple is growing from a pretty small base.

I'm seeing in my real estate office. We have over 500 agents and now I see a good 20% using macs in their office while before there were just a couple. Our office staff is also using macs while last year, there were none.

Exactly. The headline is completely unsupported by the data in the report. There us no evidence presented here to support a statement that Apple has made "huge" or even significant inroads in Enterprise. At most the evidence would support a statement that Apple has seen an increase in Enterprise sales, but without unit volume comparisons ther is not enough data to reach any valid conclusion as to the level of adoption of Macs in enterprise.

From the article, which you might consider reading:

Quote:

Mac sales are now estimated to be 3 percent of total PC business sales, which is the highest total Apple has seen since the second quarter of 1997.

Which from the included graph is up from about 1.5% a few years ago, after having been relatively stagnant for the four years prior to that. So while Apple's corporate sales remain a small percentage of the overall market, it's a very impressive increase nonetheless given the entrenched nature of that market and their performance till now. It certainly implies something more than a statistically insignificant blip on a tiny percentage, as some people seem to be implying.

They spoke of the sayings and doings of their commander, the grand duke, and told stories of his kindness and irascibility.

I'm seeing in my real estate office. We have over 500 agents and now I see a good 20% using macs in their office while before there were just a couple. Our office staff is also using macs while last year, there were none.

That could be helped by the fact that, until just a year or so ago, the MLS website was Internet Explorer only...

Torrid:
1) very hot and dry
2) full of passionate or highly charged emotions arising from sexual love
3) full of difficulty or tribulation

Um. Which of these applies to Apple's growth in the enterprise market?

Hot.

Torrid gets used in this sense all the time, such as describing a baseball player as being on a "torrid hitting streak" or a given competitor "setting a torrid pace." For the same reason we can say someone is "on a hot streak" or "on fire" and not worry unduly about temperature or third degree burns.

They spoke of the sayings and doings of their commander, the grand duke, and told stories of his kindness and irascibility.

Oh, I see, the smaller you are the larger percent that you grow naturally? Statistics - how do they work?

Let's say a company bought 100 Macs and 2000 PCs in the previous year. If Mac sales increase 60% while PC sales increase 5%, then there were 60 more Macs and 100 more PC's sold in the current year. The percentage difference appears huge (60 >> 5) but 60 is less than 100. It is usually useful to look at percentages but let's not forget that the actual numbers tell an important story also.

Let's say a company bought 100 Macs and 2000 PCs in the previous year. If Mac sales increase 60% while PC sales increase 5%, then there were 60 more Macs and 100 more PC's sold in the current year. The percentage difference appears huge (60 >> 5) but 60 is less than 100. It is usually useful to look at percentages but let's not forget that the actual numbers tell an important story also.

Again, as the article makes clear, Macs now account for about 3% of enterprise sales, having risen from 1.5% just a few years earlier. The article doesn't cite total enterprise PC sales, but I think it's safe to assume we're talking about huge numbers.

They spoke of the sayings and doings of their commander, the grand duke, and told stories of his kindness and irascibility.

I particularly like the way the striping on the bars appears to be a mask that doesn't really line up, producing random checkerboard effects.

My suspicion is that in certain business quarters years of PC use has led to the impression that "ugly" equals "true." A nice Mac generated graph would probably be regarded as possibly the work of gay elitists with an agenda.

They spoke of the sayings and doings of their commander, the grand duke, and told stories of his kindness and irascibility.